Given Switzerland’s love of soccer and foreign fortunes, the
purchase earlier this year of a fledgling soccer team in this
western Swiss town by a businessman promised to be a
marriage made in heaven.

Instead, Switzerland’s first union with a soccer-loving oligarch
has turned into a never-ending marital dispute.

During his first six months as the new owner of Neuchâtel Xamax
Football Club, Bulat Chagaev has fired dozens of employees,
including five coaches. He has filed paperwork to add a tribe
from the Caucus mountains to the official team name and
distributed Chechen flags to be displayed among fans. He
threatened to relocate the team and even accused his own players
of match-fixing during a crucial game.

Locals have reacted by staging demonstrations against
human-rights violations in Chechnya and deserting the stadium en
masse. Supporter clubs have vowed to boycott all home games until
the end of the year. Those attending away matches use the
opportunity to hurl insults at the new club president, whose
authoritarian ways earned him a comparison with Muammar Gaddafi
during a recent shareholder meeting.

Philippe Chappuis, a 42-year-old fan who has attended Xamax
matches with a nearly religious fervor for the past three
decades, said his patience wore out when Chagaev decided to
broadcast traditional Chechen dances and songs before kickoffs.

“My wife always says that Xamax is my mistress,” Chappuis said.
“Now it’s as if she cheated on me. As long as [Chagaev] is there
I won’t be able to identify myself with the team and go to the
stadium.”

Foreign money is increasingly altering the balance of power in
European soccer. A Dubai fund recently purchased Spain’s Getafe
C.F. And Qatar’s investment vehicle bought France’s beloved Paris
Saint-Germain F.C. The English Premier League remains the most
attractive for foreigners, with some of the best teams now owned
by American, Russian or Middle Eastern investors.

In Switzerland, fans are longing for competitive teams that will
rival the continent’s powerhouses. So when Chagaev bought the
team in May and later announced that he would double the annual
budget to more than $30 million, many here started dreaming big.
Rumors of prestigious player signings and that Argentinean great
Diego Armando Maradona might coach Xamax never materialized. But
the team did hire some talented players, and a drastic reduction
in ticket prices bought Chagaev some goodwill among fans.

All these warm feelings evaporated quickly, however, as Chagaev
started firing longtime staff and severing relations with local
sponsors. Poor results at the start of the season didn’t help
either.

Questions surfaced not only about the origins of Chagaev’s
fortune, but whether it existed at all when some bills went
unpaid and salaries were paid late.

Swiss authorities recently started investigating possible
money-laundering by Chagaev. They’re also looking into the
authenticity of a document he produced to prove that his pockets
are deep enough to run Xamax.

Chagaev remains evasive on his business dealings, but he has said
he is ready to face any inquiries. He said in local media that
when he bought the team Xamax was a “ruined woman” whom nobody
wanted, and that he is only now finding out the extent of the
club’s debts. He is unapologetic for his behavior, and said he
would not start managing Xamax “à la suisse.” Xamax officials did
not respond to GlobalPost’s requests seeking a comment.

Chagaev’s neighbor, Christina Minezac, said the public’s
perception of Chagaev as an insensitive and authoritarian figure
couldn’t be farther from the truth. She said Chagaev is a
discreet and intelligent man who proved extremely supportive when
her father died last year.

“His most important wish is to help Xamax and be left alone,” she
said.

Set to celebrate its centennial next year, Xamax – the club’s
name comes from the contraction of the nickname and first name of
founding member Max Abegglen – has long served as a sort of
ambassador beyond the Swiss borders for Neuchâtel, a charming
medieval town set by a beautiful lake. During the glory years of
the 1980s, Xamax shined on the European stage with prestigious
victories over giants Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

Denis Müller, an ethics and theology professor at the nearby
Lausanne and Geneva universities, said it is “undeniable” that
Neuchâtel’s reputation has suffered greatly from the recent
events at its soccer club. Müller, a Neuchâtel-born Xamax
follower and the author of a recent book on soccer’s ethical
challenges, said Chagaev was entitled to make mistakes but that
he communicated very poorly and he displayed a shocking lack of
respect for the country’s culture.

“He would have to operate a complete turnaround for things to get
better,” he said.

A member of one of Xamax’s fan clubs who requested anonymity for
fears of consequences for his day job and the fan club’s
relationship with the team, said he was at first smitten by
Chagaev and his promises of grandeur, but was quickly taken aback
by the “Chechenization” of the team. He said he would consider
ending his boycott if the team’s situation is normalized.

Chappuis said the damage caused by Chagaev is irreparable, and
that he won’t return to the stadium that had been his second home
since he was a nine-year-old boy until the Chechen president
leaves Xamax for good. The decision to stay away from his team is
painful, but has had at least one positive side effect.

“I have more time to take care of my daughters,” he said.

Editor's note: This article is part of New Global Oligarchs,
an ongoing series about how emerging market capital is changing
Western culture.
Here's another article in the series, about the purchase of
Manchester City Football Club by a sheik from Abu Dhabi.